On Thursday, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin (PPAWI) launched a statewide digital and radio ad campaign to raise awareness and urge legislators to oppose a dangerous new abortion ban. Four major statewide medical organizations, physicians, and Wisconsin women and families appeared before a joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly Health Committees earlier this week to oppose the ban.

The ad features Ginger Thew, who shares her story about how difficult complications later in pregnancy can be. In April of 1993, she was married with three young children and a fourth on the way. Ginger was 26 weeks into her very wanted pregnancy when she learned of severe fetal anomalies that would not allow the baby to survive and posed a great risk to her own health. After counsel with multiple specialists, she chose to end the pregnancy.

“My husband and I, with our faith in God, made our decision. It wasn’t anyone else’s place to decide,” said Thew in the ad. “You can never know how losing a child feels until it happens to you. It doesn’t matter where you live or who you voted for — families like mine deserve help from our doctors without interference from politicians.”

The ban would prevent physicians from providing counsel and care for women during medically and ethically complex pregnancies – including those that pose a risk to a woman’s health. The bill bans abortions after 20 weeks “postfertilization,” a term not used by medical professionals. Abortion later in pregnancy is very rare. In 2013, 89 abortions in Wisconsin occurred after 20 weeks, and these very often involve severe fetal anomalies or a serious risk to the woman’s health. These are extremely complex situations where a woman, her family, and her doctor need every medical option available.

The Wisconsin Section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), the Wisconsin Medical Society, the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians, and the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics oppose this abortion ban because is not based in sound science and is dangerous to women. In fact, no medical organizations support the bill — this dangerous ban is only supported by political groups that want to ban all abortions.